


At last, Together We Stand

by DustySoul



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4030120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustySoul/pseuds/DustySoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke finds herself in Tondc after her self assigned banishment. Lexa finds Clarke. And maybe Clarke starts to find herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At last, Together We Stand

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what the capital would be like and I remember very little of the Grounder's culture so there will not be a part 2.

Bellamy won’t let her just walk into the woods like a ghost, carrying only the clothes on her back. Of course. Of course. She can’t just… fade away into nothingness, still has to eat and drink and sleep. She’s more than just a spirit wracked with guilt and it is not her time to wander through the trees incorporeally. He brings her a pack with three days supply of food and water and her knife.

“Good-bye, Clarke.”

“Good-bye, Bellamy.”

“Hay…”

She waits.

 

_He sees her, stiff and slow. Her eyes stare far, far away. Her eyes stare at Dante Wallace, at Maya, at the faces of all the little children… everyone she burned._

_“Don’t loose yourself.” He doesn’t say, because what would be the point?_

 

“Good luck.”

 

_Please, please come back to me. Please, come back to yourself._

 

“You too.”

 

_He watches her walk into the forest until she wines through the trees and crests a hill and he can’t see her anymore. And he stays longer, watching nothing much at all. Back at the camp no one will greet him, or acknowledge that he was even gone. Clarke was the one with all the power and respect, even if no one said so out loud… with her gone he will be no one. What he does doesn’t matter if he can’t do it with her. What he does never seems right if he can’t do it with her blessing._

_But Clarke was gone long before they ever made the eight hour trek back to camp… and she might not be back when she returns._

_After a time he sighs and turns his back and walks away. Because there’s nothing else to do. There’s nothing else he_ **_can_ ** _do._

 

 

 

Her feet take her to Tondc. It’s in ruins, ash billowing in the air. But it’s rebuilding. The injured have, for the most part, been taken to other villages. The dead have all been found and buried. The smell of flies, of burnt and rotting flesh hangs like an after thought in the air. The first good rain storm will put that to rest as well.

She strides in and helps where she can.

 

 

 

“Clarke.”

She stops pushing against the boulder she’d been struggling with and stands. “Lexa.”

Lexa searches Clarke’s face, stepping closer. Her own expression is guarded, as if she does not know how to react. “Is now a good time to talk?”

Clarke nods.

They walk off into the forest a ways, none of the structures suitable for private and secret conversations.

Once they’ve walked far enough Lexa turns back to Clarke and stares at her some more.

“What is it, do I have something on my face?” Clarke runs a hand across a cheek, smearing dirt across it unknowingly.

“No.” Lexa says, serious. “If you are hear, may I take it that you were not successful in rescuing the rest of your people?”

And suddenly Clarke’s eyes burn. She closes them tightly before dragging in an inhale and looking to the sky. The sun will be setting soon. “No, um. I was… I got them out.”

“But surely then you should be with your people?”

Clarke shakes her head, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Lexa reaches an arm out to comfort her, shaken. “I admit, I do not understand.”

“I- to get them out-“ Her voice breaks and she sobs, quietly for a few breaths until she can regain control. “I had to kill **all** of them. The guards and scientists. But also the innocent men, women, and children.”

Lexa’s expressions still has not changed, though something in her eyes has softened. Reserved, though not cold, she asks, “After what you have told me they’ve done to my people for generations, and to yours, do you really believe them to be innocent?”

She opens her mouth but can’t form words. “Then, my people, we culled our own on the arch. How can _we_ be innocent?”

“Maybe you are not. Maybe none of us are. So... Clarke, why are you here?”

“I- I don’t know. I just… I couldn’t be with my people anymore. Seeing them… it reminded me of what I had to do to get them there. _Everyone_ in mount weather. And- and I couldn’t. Besides-”  she sniffed, “it’s not like I need to be there, now that we’re not at war. There are probably all types of stupid power plays going on.”

Lexa takes a seat on a fallen log. “Why don’t you tell me about your people, how are their leader’s chosen?”

Clarke sits down next to her and talks well into the night, until her voice starts to give out.

“And this culling? Does it happen often?”

“All the time with prisoners, anyone who commits a crime. They get executed. They had to cull 300 innocents, well, maybe I should call them something else… because life support was failing. Killing them gave the rest a chance to live.”

“You do what you must.”

“We do.”

 

“Lexa?”

“Yes?”

“Would you have done, what I did?”

“Yes, without a doubt.”

“You did what I would have done…”

“You did what I would have done.” Lexa echoes. 

“You don’t see me as weak for…”

“My culture... we must do grave and terrible things and face grave and terrible truths. That is life. That is the warriors way. But I see also, that there is a time and a place to grieve... we, unless calling for retribution, reserve that for close family and closer friends. And all other times we try not to show emotion. I understand now, much better, the differences in where we come from. It gives me a great  respect for you.”

Clarke leans against Lexa, hugs her, and starts crying again. “I don’t know what to do now.” She whispers. “My people don’t need me, so I can’t face them.”

“Come to the capital with me?”

Clarke nods. "Yeah... I'd... I'd like that." She sniffs. Lexa presses a kiss on the top of her head.

"You will be well, warrior. You will be well."

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to message or follow me on tumblr at dusty-soul.tumblr.com


End file.
